Look what I found!!

I was out walking with my sister this morning down a creek trail by her place. We turned a sharp corner, and this little gal was in the middle of the trail catching some sunshine!

I picked her up and she sprayed a little musk at me, but didn't bite and settled down after a minute of handling. I moved her away from the main trail to a spot where there's not a lot of foot traffic, so hopefully she stays out of trouble. She's a harmless California Kingsnake. I'm fairly sure she's female because when she musked me, her uh...lady bits...were exposed. Someone had taken a bite of her tail at some point, it was just a well-healed nubbin.

I'm still grinning like an idiot, what a fabulous way to kick off the day!

"That's the power of kittens (and puppies too, of course): They can reduce us to quivering masses of Jell-O in about two seconds flat and make us like it. Good thing they don't have opposable thumbs or they'd surely have taken over the world by now." -- Paul Lukas

With a title like that, and knowing who posted, I just HAD to look. What a good size! I don't know too many folks who would have picked her up, though. Thanks for taking the photos, lovely to see up close like this.

Hee hee, my sister was telling me "I would never have picked that snake up!" and I understand why, even I was concerned abot getting a prickly bite. I was just so worried about someone coming by and harming her, since hundreds of people walk by that part of the trail every day.